Various approaches are used to train animals, such as dogs, to detect specific drugs, such as marijuana, or explosives, or other items having an odor that can be detected by an animal, such as a dog. Training typically involves a trainer exposing the animal to an odor and rewarding the animal when the animal responds to the odor.
Conventional training systems typically require the trainer to approach the source of the odor to dispense the reward to the dog. This typically disassociates the dog from the odor in that the trainer is approaching or otherwise interacting with the dog. This involvement of the trainer tends to disadvantageously associate the reward with the trainer rather than the odor.
Conventional training also typically involves some delay from the time the dog reacts to the odor and the time the reward is provided to the dog. This delay often results in the dog scratching the source of the odor. As will be appreciated, essentially training a dog to scratch can have detrimental results in the case of dogs trained to sniff explosives.
Accordingly, improvement is desired in the training of animals, such as dogs, to recognize odors and to disassociate other odors and distractions.
The present disclosure advantageously provides a canine (or other animal) odor recognition training system that overcomes shortcomings associated with conventional training systems.